The Short Way Home

  Items

  Heart of a Wizard’s Tower

  It is said among the very wise that each proper wizard’s tower develops an intellect, a soul, and indeed a heart. The Heart is the only one that regularly materializes as a magic item, however. Only the wizard owning the Heart may bind to it. When bound, the Heart uses the same magic that coins do in the Tower, and as such can be stored in the wizard’s clothes without taking up any weight or space.

  When held aloft by a wizard bound to the Heart with both hands for sixty seconds, the owner together with any gear worn or carried by the wizard and any bound familiars are teleported back to the tower. If the owner takes damage, lowers their hands beneath their chin or loses footing, the spell fails, activating the cooldown. The Heart may only be used once per day.

  While attuned to the Heart, the tower is truly yours. Every 24 hours after leaving your tower, all creatures inside it will be kicked out and its interior will be restored to its previous state, including teleporting any items taken by intruders back to their proper place.

  Bind your soul with the Heart of a Wizard’s Tower? Y/N

  As soon as I read the description of the item I circled Yes. As soon as I had done so, the stone became warm in my hands. It kept heating up, but didn’t burn me. Soon, a bright light filled the office, and I was blinded by a flash. When my vision cleared, I could feel the stone vibrating with a warm hum in my hand. I stared at it in amazement for a moment, then tried putting it in my pocket. Just as the description had suggested, the stone went in easily, and disappeared. There was a moment of panic, I searched for it in my pocket. It was there, still warm, still humming, still reminding me of home.

  I took a breath, then, with a swirl of my robe I turned back to the exit of the study and spoke to Adam in passing.

  “Get people ready. We will be moving out in less than an hour,” I said. I couldn’t think of the 24 hour re-set at the moment. I would simply have to get back before it became an issue.

  “I am assuming something of great significance happened. You have an idea, friend?” Adam said.

  “Probably. I need to speak to Chum,” I said.

  I sensed him on the bottom floor, and I ran down the stairs to meet him. I found Chum in the kitchens, poking a floating pan with his clawed finger and swearing at it for not giving him the right kind of spices. Right, whatever.

  “Chum, we’re going,” I said.

  “Using the Sentinel teleport? Smart. These lot can sort their own problems now,” Chum said.

  “We’re coming back. I have the Heart,” I said.

  “Oh, so this is a wizard tower wizard tower,” he said, “Nice. Yeah, let’s scram.”

  I said a few quick words to the rest of my friends in my tower and I stood in an open area on the bottom floor. I hadn’t actually used my teleportation ability, but it really seemed like just the solution for our problem when combined with the Heart. I used it, and a glimmering portal opened out of nowhere- it was a tear in reality, and on the other side I saw the dining room in the Swinging Donkey, packed to bursting with activity, people standing shoulder-to-shoulder, eating, drinking and moving about.

  I stepped through. It was a curious feeling. I can only explain how it felt if you’ve ever put your hand through a mirror in a dream. In which case it was like that. Except when I put my foot through the portal, I knew I couldn’t not go through it. It didn’t suck me through, just removed the possibility of taking a step back. I completed that one step through and Chum was dragged with me, and then the portal disappeared instantly behind me.

  The Swinging Donkey was loud. There were more people here than even all of the Guild together could account for, and most of them were drinking. Even then I heard the two CLANG CLANG footsteps behind me, an aura of frost, and then a plate-clad arm was draped over my shoulder.

  “You’re alive,” Hannah said in my ear, loudly.

  “Fuck!” I said, and spun to see her as she let go of me, “Yeah, yeah, we have work to do. Where is Artemis? Ajit?”

  “I’ll show you,” Hannah said. She turned to the exit of the tavern, and the crowd parted for her like the sea. I saw an equal mix of people scattering with faces of drunken fear and admiration. One woman even looked like she was working up her courage to walk up to Hannah with a flower she was turning between her fingers. But as Hannah ignored everyone and just walked ahead as if daring anyone to interrupt us, I simply followed in her wake.

  I noticed then that I recognized almost none of the faces here. I thought about it for a second and realized too that nobody had even so much as spilled their drink seeing someone teleport from nowhere into the hall. Things had changed in the Swinging Donkey, and Artemis’ makeshift Guild desk was not here any more. Instead, several people- Earth people by some of their clothes- were serving drinks and food here, directed by the humongous innkeep.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  As we left the inn, I could immediately tell that while the changes inside the Swinging Donkey had been significant, the area around it had changed beyond recognition. For a moment I thought I had stepped through another portal, and looked to Chum for explanation as he just shrugged.

  Indeed, there were two things that were equally strange. First, there was a pillar of white light in the distance, breaking the night sky. It was a beam, starting in the mountains on the horizon. At first I could find no reasonable explanation for it, until I remembered that update in my Journal. The Divine Seal was revealed. That must be it.

  What had been a crossroads in the wilderness but- what had it been? Three, four days ago- was now a bustling town square. Intellectually I knew that many other people had picked up some of the building tokens back in the hotel between the challenges, but seeing what looked like an actual street just outside the formerly isolated wilderness inn was dizzying. Sure, the streets were still clearly dirt packed by walking, and the town square was little more than the spot where the mass of the foot traffic had beaten the grass down dead and flat, but I could already see work sites abandoned for the night, for working stones and measuring pathways for paving. And there were what looked like dozens, maybe a hundred people walking up and down the street.

  “I guess she changed her mind about the mountains,” I said.

  “No, she just really means it when she says she isn’t in charge. It was different in the halls. Someone had to tell people what to do back then. Now, it made sense for most people to set up here. So we did,” Hannah said. That was actually a lot of words for her. Which meant either that her throat had finally healed enough that she could speak normally again, or that she thought it was important for me to hear this information. And she was still as raspy as ever.

  “So. What is Artemis doing and where is she? I also need to see Ajit, ideally the rest of the mages,” I said.

  “Fuck. Let’s just start with the Guild. They all merged, by the way,” Hannah said.

  “What do you mean all?” I said.

  “Three more Guildmasters got here. Over a thousand Guild members now. Even with all the cobblers,” Hannah said.

  “Cobblers?” I said.

  “Hmpf. Some people left the Guild to do… stuff. Crafting, gathering. That shit,” she said.

  It made sense. Nobody who was here had ever planned to be a fighting adventurer risking their lives day in and day out. Two weeks ago they’d all had the lives they’d lived for decades, and a couple of weeks of intense horror didn’t change that. For them. And if there was an actual community forming, it made sense that people wanted to do the much safer and still very important work of making sure that others have a safe space to come home to with goods and services.

  “The Guild then,” I said.

  Hannah nodded. Despite it all the town wasn’t exactly large. Most of the buildings were large, communal housing- three to five stories high, with probably around fifty small apartments each. There were store-fronts, workshops and some more luxurious domiciles too. But there weren’t hundreds of buildings here, more like dozens- walking from one side of the town to the other would take less than fifteen minutes. And one of the largest buildings on the right side of the street looked like a bank, or a government building- faux marble columns, white-washed face and heavy wooden doors. A large, black plaque was set above the doors and in golden letters it said “Adventuring Guild Headquarters”.

  “I don’t remember that as one of the token options,” I said.

  “Artemis’ ability. She fucking hates it. Let’s go find her,” Hannah said.

  The Guild was also one of the busiest buildings at this time of the night, with the only exception being Gromshnag’s inn. People- adventurers by gear and bearing- walked up the stairs into the Guild and came out in sufficient numbers that the doors seldom swung fully closed. We went up those stairs too, and as we did, a vaguely familiar voice greeted us.

  “New quest sign ups are closed for the day, normal quest hand-ins is the big queue over there, priority quests go straight to Artemis on the second floor,” Octavia, the head of the Specialist council said.

  “They’ve got you on door duty?” I said. She looked up, and gave me a tired smile. I didn’t know her well, exactly, but I liked her and distinctly remembered her being elected the leader of some twenty per-cent of the Guild.

  “You’re alive. Artemis will be happy to see that. Well, first she’ll be pissed that you didn’t check in, but afterwards. And yeah, it’s been all hands on deck for the past two days. It wasn’t so bad until the Hallowwood Manor people came in, but we’re definitely stretched now,” she said.

  “The whole thousand came as a group and joined us,” Hannah said, when I looked confused.

  “She’s up on the second floor. I’m guessing you’re in a hurry, but nobody’s going to make Hannah wait,” Octavia said.

  We made our way up the stairs. “So, what have you been up to?” I said. She grunted in response.

  “I mean, the old Guild thought you were a badass, sure, but it seems a bit beyond that now,” I said.

  “Just had a good match-up with a monster. You know how that is,” Hannah said.

  “What monster?” I said.

  She didn’t answer, so I asked again.

  “Everyone keeps calling it a dragon. The Journal said juvenile. It’s not a big deal,” Hannah said.

  “Holy shit,” I said.

  “Shut up,” Hannah said.

  “The Hero of- wait, have you named this place?” I said.

  “Shut up. The town’s name is Checkpoint. Zack came up with it,” Hannah said.

  And by then we’d reached the door that said “Guildmaster” on it. I swung the door open, and found Artemis there, buried in even more paperwork than she’d been buried under the last time I’d seen her.

  “Fucking motherfucker,” she said, with actual bite. She hadn’t changed much. Still had her army jacket and t-shirt on, though she’d got a haircut- a fresh undercut- and regular baths since last time. The burned handprint was still on her face, not healed even a little.

  “Sorry. Everything was going as planned until it wasn’t. Then it was just running screaming for three days straight,” I said.

  “Had the time to wax your mustache, I see,” Artemis said.

  “There was also that time we were just sailing through Nothing for a couple of hours. Oh, and that time after we killed the Toad priest guy!” Chum added. Helpfully.

  “Nothing? You mean the place inside the walls?” Artemis said, jumping to her feet, “You found them? Where are they? Is Clarence with you?”

  “It’s a bit of a story. I’ll need the mage council, tonight if possible,” I said.

  “Fuck. Hannah, didn’t you update him?” Artemis said.

  “Thought you need to see him first,” Hannah said.

  “The council is out. There was an anomaly. Ajit took them to investigate. Almost everyone left six hours ago,” Artemis said.

  And suddenly my deadline seemed that much deadlier.